Making Sense of Mad Studies: Call for papers

‘Making Sense of Mad Studies’ is a two day conference to be held on 30 September and 1 October 2015-funded by the Wellcome Trust and hosted by the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University in collaboration with the North East Mad Studies Forum. The aim of the conference is to provide a platform for the development and critical exploration of the emerging discipline, Mad Studies, with specific emphasis on nurturing new researchers and collaborations in this area- both inside and outside of the University. This call for papers invites people to submit ideas and papers to the conference. Your idea/presentation/paper should fit loosely within one of the following five themes of the conference:

What are the challenges Mad Studies face and what can we do about them?

What does ‘doing’ Mad Studies mean?

Connections between Mad Studies and disciplines such as sociology, disability studies, geography, psychiatry, social policy, healthcare and medicine;

Mad Studies, ‘recovery’, and the co-option of activist terms;

Narratives of madness and distress- drawing on literature and cultural representations as a source for understanding mental distress.

We hope this conference provides space to begin and continue conversations, and for delegates to think about how we make sense of Mad Studies, reflecting on what Mad Studies has done and can do. If you are interested in submitting an idea or a paper for the conference please do so in no more than 250 words, to Victoria Armstrong by midday Friday 21st August. Please indicate which stream you would like your paper to fall within. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Victoria Armstrong, one of the conference organisers.